Proximity
by CTony
Summary: After wearing the Kryptonite necklace for all those years, Lana contracts an incurable disease. Will Clark finally realize that he has to tell her about his secret?
1. Default Chapter

Disclaimer: I do not own these characters.  
  
Proximity  
  
Summary: After wearing the Kryptonite necklace for all those years, Lana contracts an incurable disease. Will Clark finally realize that he has to tell her about his secret?  
  
Smallville High  
  
"All-Star" plays in background. Lana is walking outside with Clark while Chloe pushes her way through the crowd to reach them. Pete rushes by Clark and Lana with a girl on his arm and a huge smirk on his face. Lana and Clark smirk at his eagerness.  
  
Chloe: "Hey, Lana! Lana I got that first priority information you were looking for."  
  
She hands Lana a manila envelope and looks at Clark quizzically.  
  
Lana: "How'd you get this? I've been looking for this for weeks now?"  
  
Chloe: "That's the power of inquisitive journalism. I had to go through a whole bunch of records, but with the power of my superior editorial skills I think you'll find the data satisfactory."  
  
Lana: "Oh I got you these tickets to Remy Zero's concert this Saturday."  
  
She digs through her book bag and pulls out a ticket.  
  
Lana: "Here you go."  
  
Chloe: "I've been looking for these for a while."  
  
Clark: "That's some quid pro quo. She gives you an envelope and she gets concert tickets."  
  
Lana: "For your information this is some very important family information that I've been searching for. It's for that heritage thing, but my computer has been on hiatus for the past month."  
  
Clark: "Well you could have just asked me."  
  
Lana: "Thanks Clark, but in the world of super complicated technical stuff, I think I'd probably trust that Chloe has the foremost authority."  
  
Chloe: "Don't worry, Clark. You're still good for... other things," she said suggestively.  
  
Clark: "Sure. I'll take that as a compliment."  
  
Lana giggles slightly, but soon her eyes begin to widen. She struggles to breath haltingly, gasping for air. She drops the paper. A view from the ground shows the manila envelope drifting slowly to the ground.  
  
Clark: "Lana are you okay?"  
  
Chloe: "What's wrong?"  
  
Lana's legs give in and she falls forward. Clark catches her. Her hands crackle and shake the same way Clark's do when he's around the meteor rocks.  
  
(Theme Song)  
  
~Somebody save me! Let your warm hands break right through. Somebody save me! Don't care how ya do it just stay. Stay. Come on. I've been waiting for you. Stay with me. I made this whole world shine for you. Stay. Stay. Come on~  
  
Back at the Kent Farm  
  
(In the kitchen)  
  
Clark: "I don't know what happened. I mean, one minute we were walking outside of school and the next she just collapsed and I've never known about her having any medical problems."  
  
Martha: "Maybe it was just stress."  
  
Clark: "I don't think stress causes you to hyperventilate and pass out. At least not in high school."  
  
Jonathan: "Well have the doctors said anything?"  
  
Clark: "Well of course they told Nell. She's on her way back from Metropolis, but other than that... no news so far."  
  
Martha: "I hope it's nothing too serious."  
  
Jonathan: "Clark that's your bus."  
  
The bus pulls up outside of the farm.  
  
Clark: "Gotta go."  
  
Clark zooms off at super speed up to his room and gets his book bag and materials. Then walks out the front door normally. Martha walks outside the door.  
  
Martha: "Have a nice day, Clark!"  
  
Clark waves a hand behind him, too consumed in his own thoughts to reply. Clark walks down the aisle and sits in the three-seater with Pete and Chloe.  
  
Pete: "Hey Clark did you hear?"  
  
Clark: "What?"  
  
Chloe: "Well apparently the princess of Smallville has some sort of mysterious ailment that's killing her blood cells or something."  
  
Pete: "Wait I thought she just got a cold. What ailment?"  
  
Clark: "The benefits of an inquiring mind," Clark said hurriedly. "How'd you find out about this?"  
  
Chloe: "I coaxed some med doctor to get me some inside information. Here."  
  
She handed him a manila envelope.  
  
Pete: "So what are you now, a postal worker? Don't take it, Clark everyone she gives an envelope to ends up illin'. The parcel woman of death!"  
  
Clark: "Shut up, Pete."  
  
Clark opened up the folder. A single sheet of paper lingered in the two flaps.  
  
Chloe: "Look right there."  
  
She scanned her finger along a line on the paper.  
  
Clark: "Distinct, nonspecific blood cell failure."  
  
Chloe: "Not only that, but our PhD documents a weird green blood pigmentation in her veins. Like chlorophyll or something."  
  
Clark: "That's odd."  
  
Pete: "No kidding. Looks like your prom queen has some secrets after all."  
  
Lex's Mansion  
  
(Main area. Y'all know what I'm talking about)  
  
Lex walks around looking intensely at his pool table as the sun streams in through the pane-glass windows. The novel "War and Peace" sits on the edge of the pool table. Clark walks in the door unnoticed. Lex hits the eight ball in the corner pocket. The vibration causes the book to fall. Lex walks over to get it. Clark picks it up instead.  
  
Clark: "I got it."  
  
Lex: "Thanks, Clark. I'd hate to see a great work of English literature be damaged by a pool game."  
  
Clark: "You like to read those things?"  
  
Lex: "There's the occasional intriguing topic. It helps me improve myself as a tactician. Other than that it's just a vain attempt to astound my father at my collection of sophisticated arts. Under all these $90 words I'm basically just you with a follicle deficiency."  
  
Clark smiles.  
  
Lex: "I heard about what happened to Lana."  
  
Clark: "How is it that you always know all about the exciting details that take place in our illustrious Smallville High?"  
  
Lex: "Well Clark just like any good reporter I have my informants."  
  
Clark: "If I didn't know better I'd think you were tailing me with one of your drones from 'The Inquisitor'."  
  
Lex (with a smirk): "Of course not."  
  
Clark: "I just don't know what's wrong with her. One minute she was fine and the next..."  
  
Lex: "Well stress can do that to a person."  
  
Clark: "Now you sound like my mom."  
  
Lex: "Your mother is a very astute woman it wouldn't surprise me that she would catch some things that you stay in the dark about."  
  
Clark: "No, Lex. This was something different."  
  
Lex: "Well think about it Clark. I mean between school and getting over the quarterback, although from what you've told me in recent months it appears she's coping with that well, not to mention running the Talon. With all a compendium of extra-extracurricular activities that compounds that list it's easy to see why she might need a break."  
  
Clark: "Yeah, but spending it in a hospital bed? Besides Lana's never been one to let that stuff get to her."  
  
Lex: "Well you're the foremost authority on Lana in a stalking, creepy kind of way."  
  
Clark looks at him annoyed. Lex puts his hands up as if in defense and tilts his head.  
  
Lex: "Look Clark just say the word and I'll have the best doctors in Metropolis down here."  
  
Clark: "No. I don't want to cause any trouble just in case it is a false alarm. But I've got an odd feeling about this. What's that word?"  
  
Lex: "Ominous."  
  
Clark: "Me with a hair deficiency, huh?" says Clark with a smile.  
  
Smallville Hospital  
  
(Lana's room)  
  
Lana lies on her bed alone propped up by a high pillow. She sits there with a remote in her hand flipping through channels. Clark opens the door with a bouquet of lilies and a get-well card.  
  
Clark: "Hey."  
  
Lana smiles.  
  
Lana: "Hey."  
  
Clark: "Uh... I got you lilies because I was sure that everyone else had already gotten roses. I see that I'm not mistaken."  
  
The room is filled with red roses, cards, and balloons. One says "Happy Birthday, Estelle Getty (For one of those television things where they reveal all the hidden stuff).  
  
Lana: "It's been a boring day of boring clichés... thanks for the lilies."  
  
Clark: "So uh... how are you feeling?"  
  
Lana: "Like I look."  
  
Clark: "I thought you would be feeling awful."  
  
Lana blushes.  
  
Lana: "I'm just tired, here flipping through the channels."  
  
She hands him the remote. He surfs the channels for a minute or two until he comes to "Close Encounters". He could see her face light up.  
  
Clark: "I think we've got something."  
  
They both sit there and watch the movie with only the occasional glance at one another. Clark could feel something ominous on the horizon as if things weren't going to turn out peaches and cream this time.  
  
"Green pigmentation..." Clark thought to himself. "Hmmm."  
  
Please review. I'm thinking of writing a second chapter. 


	2. Discovery

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters. Sorry it took me so long to get to a second chapter.  
  
Discovery  
  
Clark finds out about the Kryptonite infection and desperately searches for a way to cure Lana.  
  
Smallville High  
  
(Bell rings and students walk outside of classrooms. Clark goes to locker while Chloe walks up behind him. She taps him on the shoulder)  
  
Chloe: "Hey!"  
  
Clark: "Damn! Chloe could you at least give me some type of warning before you just sneak up on me like that?"  
  
Chloe: "Someone woke up on the wrong side of the loft this morning. What's eating you?"  
  
Clark looks around aimlessly in a "What do you think?" manner  
  
Chloe: "Still worried about Lana, huh?"  
  
Clark: "It's been two months. Every day I've called the doctors have said she's getting worse."  
  
Chloe: "Every day you've called? Wow Clark don't try so hard or the rest of us might begin to suspect you have an actual social life that doesn't solely drift within Lana's sphere of influence." (Had to throw in the Smallville lingo)  
  
Clark: "Well I'm sorry if I'm concerned."  
  
Chloe: "To the point of being frighteningly close to the category of "stalker"."  
  
Clark: "Come on, Chloe I'm sure that if I was in her situation you'd be just as worried right?"  
  
Chloe looks as if she's thinking a moment.  
  
Clark: "Thanks."  
  
Chloe: "Of course I would have a healthy concern for you, but not to where it consumes my entire being. Besides Lex has the best meds in Metropolis looking after her. No one can seemed to resist the face that launched a thousand wars lately."  
  
Clark: "Your altruism astounds me. I thought I asked him not to do that."  
  
Chloe: "Who listens to you? I'm sure she'll be fine. In the meantime if you're done sulking I was wondering if I could borrow your geo notes."  
  
Clark: "You are some piece of work, Chloe."  
  
He searches through his book bag and pulls out his notebook.  
  
Clark: "Here."  
  
Chloe: "Thanks."  
  
She gives him a quick peck on the cheek and shoots down the hall. Clark rolls his eyes and sets off for his next class.  
  
He enters a lightly lit classroom with about fourteen desks. Tons of posters of equations and formulas decorate the walls giving the place a distinct Physics look. Clark walks around a couple of girls applying make- up and takes his normal seat next to Pete.  
  
His science teacher walks in with a back full of some sort of materials. He drops them on his desks. A bunch of rocks lie sprawled across his workstation.  
  
Pete: "Mr. Wilks? This looks a lot like some sort of mineral thing."  
  
Mr. Wilks: "How perceptive."  
  
Pete: "Aw come on. That's Earth Science junk. You know how much I hated that crap. Rockology or whatever."  
  
Mr. Wilks: "Mineralogy. I'm going a ways back I realize, but it occurs to me that not all of you got the gist of it the first time around. I'm normally not one to spelunk all the way back to your Freshman days, but since you've all been so quick and efficient in your work I have nothing mandatory scheduled for the next week or so and I've chosen this particular branch of science because I know how much you all loathe it and I enjoy watching you squirm. Now if you'll all come up to the front..."  
  
All the students reluctantly head towards Wilks's desk. Clark begins to feel a tad bit queasy, but quickly shakes it off.  
  
Mr. Wilks: "Now can anyone dig through the depths of your teenage ignorance and manage to tell me what this mineral is?"  
  
Pete: "Ooo I know it's the sugar thing."  
  
Mr. Wilks: "You're referring to halite. Good. I'm glad to see one of you as retained something amidst your piles of basketball statistics and girl's phone numbers. No Mister Ross that is not the correct mineral. This is hematite."  
  
Pete looks over at Clark. "At least I got the first letter, he mumbles. Clark smirks, but is trouble as that same slightly queasy feeling comes over him again.  
  
Mr. Wilks: "Let's see. Here we have an authentic piece of lead."  
  
He dug through a pile of rocks and pointed to a piece of lead that seemed to be propped up by something.  
  
Mr. Wilks: "You'll notice how heavy it is. Go ahead lift it up."  
  
A girl with a yellow blouse on is the first to pick it up and is surprised by how heavy it is. Clark on the other hand has his eye on something else. A black irregular shaped rock with green veins in it. Kryptonite. His hands crackle and shake and his stomach churns.  
  
Pete: "Clark what's wro..."  
  
He stops and looks at the meteor rock.  
  
Mr. Wilks: "This is one of my particular favorites. It's a meteor rock. The strange thing about these guys is that they weren't even believed to exist until about twelve years ago. No scientists here or abroad have been able to culture it. Here Mr. Kent why don't you take a closer look."  
  
He picks up the rock and holds it out towards Clark. Clark pulls back sharply.  
  
Clark: "Uh."  
  
He winces  
  
Clark: "I gotta go to the bathroom."  
  
Pete looks concerned.  
  
Clark: "I'll be fine."  
  
Pete nods. Clark opens the door and walks out into the hallway. His hands begin to stop crackling. He stops as if some great realization just came over him. His mind bends and twists passed the days, the weeks, the months. He pulls out an image of Lana's hands shacking and crackling, her veins bulging. Why hadn't he seen it sooner? He ran off as quickly as he could out of the school entrance and toward Smallville Hospital. The Kryptonite!  
  
(Theme Song)  
  
~Somebody save me! Let your warm hands break right through. Somebody save me! Don't care how you do it just stay. Stay. Come on. I've been waiting for you. Stay with me. I made this whole world shine for you. Stay. Stay. Come on~  
  
At Smallville Hospital  
  
Several doctors pace around the hospital, some with clipboards and others talking quietly with their colleagues. Clark walks in and takes several of them by surprise as no one saw him come in. He heads to Lana's room. He looks through the window and sees her in the same position she was in the last time he saw her, except she is no longer flipping through the channels. She lies there with a card in her hand and tears slowly streaming out of her eyes. Clark thinks about going. As he turns around a female doctor stops him.  
  
Doctor: "Hello Mr. Kent. I see you've come by to check on your friend."  
  
Lana hears through the room's open door and quickly attempts to wipe away her tears.  
  
Doctor: "She's all yours."  
  
Clark heads into the room slowly, a little nervous. Lana waves him in with the best smile she could muster on her streak stained face.  
  
Clark: "Hey. Uh... how you doin'?"  
  
Clark could already tell. Now she really did look awful.  
  
Lana: "Like I look."  
  
Clark smiled.  
  
Clark: "So what do the doctors say? I hope you'll be up and running soon."  
  
Lana: "They keep the details as hidden from me as they do anyone else. But..."  
  
She looked down at the wire attached to her arm.  
  
Lana: "But I can tell."  
  
Clark: "Nah. Y-You'll be fine. Besides what would Smallville High be without the... most beautiful girl in school?"  
  
She chuckled.  
  
Lana: "Even now you still manage to make me laugh. This is gonna sound incredibly clichéd, but sitting here in this room. It all made things come together. It got my priorities straight. You never do know how much someone means to you..."  
  
She began to cry. She tried her best to hold back the tears, but soon they came streaming down unchecked. Clark took her hand and held it firmly. The moniter at the side of her bed began to "beep" rapidly. Clark looked at it stubbornly as if denying it any control over her.  
  
Clark: "I have something that I need to tell you."  
  
Clark hated himself for doing this now because he knew it was because of the situation. Lana's hand began to crackle and shake again. It made Clark's hand do the same as if it were infecting him, too. A doctor walked in from the outside and looked astonished at the chart.  
  
Doctor: "Oh my God! Get someone down here!"  
  
Clark held on still with all his strength. It was a miracle he didn't crush her hand.  
  
Clark: "Come on. Just... just stay with me" (Of Daredevil fame).  
  
Lana: "I'm sorry."  
  
Her hand slipped from Clark's grasp.  
  
Doctor: "Son, I'm gonna have to ask you to leave now."  
  
Clark slowly backed out of the room in disbelief. This could not be happening. He ran. He ran passed his cares and fears. He ran passed his worries. He ran in a vain attempt to escape his nightmare. He ran and hated himself. He was no good. All the things he could do. All his powers and he couldn't even... No! He could stop this. He would not let her slip away. He would get her back. The Kryptonite made her like this. He hade to find some way. He didn't know one 


End file.
